I've been musing about tablets, the Fire and computers - Page 3

DustyDisks · 09-15-2012, 01:57 PM

How many here punched that hole in their 720kb disk to make them a 1.4mb? Success varied depending on the disk. Taking more than a day to low level format a rrl drive!

WillysJeepMan · 09-15-2012, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DustyDisks

How many here punched that hole in their 720kb disk to make them a 1.4mb? Success varied depending on the disk. Taking more than a day to low level format a rrl drive!

We used to do that with the 8" and 5.25" floppies.

TimW · 09-15-2012, 02:11 PM

The last time I used cassette tape data was when I loaded this game on the Commodore 64. That was a fun game.

Hope · 09-15-2012, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Does anyone remember the "internet giant" called Compuserve? That was the "internet" prior to the graphic internet we now use.

I remember my oldest son asking us to pay $9.99/month for Compuserve and we said "no". Come to think of it we were "mean" parents.
Later I was one of the first to sign up for a Compuserve email address and got Hope@Compuserve.com....imagine being able to do that?
My son #2 wrote a graphical interface for a BBS company called Gallacticomm when he was 15 and the WWW came along and changed everything. BBS's were obsolete almost overnight.

Second son asked my husband for $7/month to play an online game and my husband said...why don't YOU write a game and charge other people to play...and he actually did that.

KlondikeGeoff · 09-15-2012, 04:59 PM

My, oh my, the nostalgia. Little did I suspect when I started this thread the number of wonderful stories it would invoke.

Yup, my first computer was a VIC-20 too, with an astounding 5 KB of memory. And, of course the stringy-floppy tape drive. I latter skipped the 64 and then got the 128, which actually incorporated the 64 into it also. Finally, I got a disk drive! Two slots for the 5.25" disks. One to load the program, and the other to save data. What a great advance. Remember the Commodore magazine? Each issue some genius who had a program posted, and it had to be typed out into the machine. One error, and it did not work. I eventually got the brilliant idea to read the thing into a tape recorder, then play it back (with a foot switch to stop it when I could not type fast enough)

We had computers at work, but when the 286 came out, that was the first one I built from scratch. I built several others through the years, and today it is rather amazing that you can buy a good computer for less money than it would cost to build one.

Yup, I remember my first 300 baud external modem with the flashing lights. it is ironic today that with cable internet, I am back to an external one with flashing lights again. A bit faster, however.

Ah, yes, skydog, I did learn CP/M, the precursor to DOS and programming was pretty simple and a lot of fun. When MSDOS came out, I found BASIC was pretty much the same.

And, sure, Compuserve was an amazing entry to what later became the Internet. Later, my son-in-law was teaching at a university, and got me an ID and a password so I could use Gopher. I still kinda think that going through those menus was just as easy as trying to navigate some websites today.

My friend way back then got a Sinclair (before Timex got into it) and it did about as much as the VIC-20. But, I hated (as he did) the membrane keyboard. But hey, we're back to those damned things in tablets today. Progress?

Blossom, I remember doing backups to my 5.25" floppies. Last time I did that, it took more than 40 disks to hold everything. Can't recall what backup program I used. I gritted my teeth a few years ago and tossed them all out,but only recently did I have the nerve to get rid of all the 3.5" disks, many with programs and others with backups of files. Pity I could not find a use for them. And remember all the damned disks AOL used to mail everybody,and later CDs? They made good coasters or Christmas tree ornaments.

OK, enough of that, but it was fun reading all these posts. Thanks guys for a trip down memory lane.

DreamWriter · 09-15-2012, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blossom

I met my hubby online too!

We met on ICQ. Remember that chat client? I lived in in St Louis and he was stationed at Whiteman AFB on the other side of the state. After 8 days of chatting, he drove up for the weekend. My mother freaked!
We spent the weekend together and have never been apart since, that was over 13 years ago.

Aww, that's sweet, Blossom!

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09-15-2012, 01:57 PM	#31
DustyDisks Old Fart In Training Posts: 534 Karma: 2742476 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Gladewater, Texas Device: K3+3g/KFHD 7"/Nexus 7/Nexus 7.2	How many here punched that hole in their 720kb disk to make them a 1.4mb? Success varied depending on the disk. Taking more than a day to low level format a rrl drive!

09-15-2012, 02:11 PM	#33
TimW Wizard Posts: 1,022 Karma: 6824104 Join Date: May 2011 Location: Southeastern Kentucky Device: KK3G, KPW1, Sony PRST1, Sony PRS350, iPod Touch 5G	The last time I used cassette tape data was when I loaded this game on the Commodore 64. That was a fun game.

09-15-2012, 04:59 PM	#35
KlondikeGeoff Wombat Aficionado Posts: 481 Karma: 733 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Arizona Device: Fire, Kindle1, Sony PRS-500 Reader, Rocket 1100 eBook	My, oh my, the nostalgia. Little did I suspect when I started this thread the number of wonderful stories it would invoke. Yup, my first computer was a VIC-20 too, with an astounding 5 KB of memory. And, of course the stringy-floppy tape drive. I latter skipped the 64 and then got the 128, which actually incorporated the 64 into it also. Finally, I got a disk drive! Two slots for the 5.25" disks. One to load the program, and the other to save data. What a great advance. Remember the Commodore magazine? Each issue some genius who had a program posted, and it had to be typed out into the machine. One error, and it did not work. I eventually got the brilliant idea to read the thing into a tape recorder, then play it back (with a foot switch to stop it when I could not type fast enough) We had computers at work, but when the 286 came out, that was the first one I built from scratch. I built several others through the years, and today it is rather amazing that you can buy a good computer for less money than it would cost to build one. Yup, I remember my first 300 baud external modem with the flashing lights. it is ironic today that with cable internet, I am back to an external one with flashing lights again. A bit faster, however. Ah, yes, skydog, I did learn CP/M, the precursor to DOS and programming was pretty simple and a lot of fun. When MSDOS came out, I found BASIC was pretty much the same. And, sure, Compuserve was an amazing entry to what later became the Internet. Later, my son-in-law was teaching at a university, and got me an ID and a password so I could use Gopher. I still kinda think that going through those menus was just as easy as trying to navigate some websites today. My friend way back then got a Sinclair (before Timex got into it) and it did about as much as the VIC-20. But, I hated (as he did) the membrane keyboard. But hey, we're back to those damned things in tablets today. Progress? Blossom, I remember doing backups to my 5.25" floppies. Last time I did that, it took more than 40 disks to hold everything. Can't recall what backup program I used. I gritted my teeth a few years ago and tossed them all out,but only recently did I have the nerve to get rid of all the 3.5" disks, many with programs and others with backups of files. Pity I could not find a use for them. And remember all the damned disks AOL used to mail everybody,and later CDs? They made good coasters or Christmas tree ornaments. OK, enough of that, but it was fun reading all these posts. Thanks guys for a trip down memory lane.